


The Element of Surprise

by Rei382



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: College AU, Humor, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25239553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rei382/pseuds/Rei382
Summary: Ed had officially graduated his doctorate. All he wanted to do was have something to eat after the long and boring ceremony, but his brother had different ideas.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Comments: 24
Kudos: 80
Collections: RoyEd OTPoly 2020





	The Element of Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> Finally finished my 2nd piece for the RoyEd OTPoly! guh this ended up being more difficult than I thought but I made it!

“Alphonse, I’m starving. Can’t we go to eat something first before going back home?” Ed whined. He was tired, and slightly annoyed. He never had much patience, but whatever little of it he did have evaporated when he was hungry. Besides, the ceremony was annoying enough. All he wanted was a pizza. Or a burger. Or a nice, big and juicy shawarma.

Alphonse sighed. “I personally did your shopping yesterday so I know for a fact that you currently have plenty food – good, delicious, healthy food – at home. Come on, I'll make something for you once we get there.”

Ed groaned in annoyance but kept walking with his brother anyway. “I don't want you to make healthy food for me. I want something fat and greasy and so full of added taste that I wouldn't be able to stop eating it. Here!” he said, seeing a big sign over one of the doors on the other side of the street saying SHAWARMA KING in big, red letters. “We can eat there -"

"Brother, stop that. We’ll get home in about five minutes. I highly doubt you'll die of starvation in those five minutes.”

“You really underestimate how hungry I am.”

Much to his annoyance this made Alphonse chuckle. “I've known you my entire life Ed. I know when the situation becomes critical for you and I’m happy to say we're not there yet.”

Ed mumbled something that even he wasn't sure what it was. They kept walking, leaving SHAWARMA KING behind them.

“There we are!” Al exclaimed a minute later when they reached the apartment building where Ed rented a compact one bedroom apartment. “See?” he asked as he pushed the front door open. “That wasn't too bad.”

Ed followed him. “Maybe, but now I’m gonna have to wait until you make something – “

“Oh for haven’s sake, Ed, shut up!”

Still annoyed, Ed did. He climbed the stairs, one floor after the other until he got to the fifth floor where he lived. When they got to the door Alphonse paused and gave him a look. He shook his head slightly but didn't say anything, leaving Ed to wonder what the fuck was wrong this time as he reached inside his pocket for the key. He put it in its designated hole and turned it, pushing the door open.

He took a step in and heard Al walking in after him. He must've reached for the light switch because the lights were turned on suddenly.

The next thing that happened was a deafening roar from inside his small living room.

“SURPRISE!”

And he really was. Temporarily blinded by the bright LED lights and on the verge of having a heart attack from being yelled at like that, it took Ed a moment before he realized that this was, in fact, a surprise party for him. He forced a weak and hopefully not too terrified smile on his face as he turned his head towards Al. The sneaky bastard was standing next to him, beaming and looking all too proud of himself.

“Now you see why I didn't want us stopping on the way?”

Ed had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. “Yeah, uh,” he looked down at his feet, then glanced at Al, and then turned his eyes to the room.

There weren’t all that many people there. Alphonse, of course; and Winry. A few friends from the university. A few of Al’s friends who were on semi-friendly terms with Ed, too. And…

Ed felt his face gaining a new shade of red as his mouth went dry and it became harder to breathe. Right next to his small dining table, snacking on what looked like chips, stood his International Relations Theory teacher, Professor Mustang.

Outside of classroom environment, Professor Mustang looked like a whole different person. Gone was the stern posture, though he still held himself confidently, somehow managing to do that even when standing next to a snacking table, surrounded by people who were about half his age.

Ed swallowed. He looked even hotter like this. And the massive age gap between them – fourteen, fifteen years – was ever more apparent which an average age in the room of about twenty four. Professor Mustang seemed to have noticed him, which was even worse, as he was now smiling and waving at him.

Ed waved weakly back before he turned to his brother.

Much to his dismay, Alphonse, the little devil, had an even bigger smirk on his lips right now. “You’re welcome, Brother.”

Ed blinked, completely at loss. “What – what do you mean? What is he doing here?” he demanded.

Alphonse shrugged. “Well, you were always talking about him, saying how attractive you found him. So I invited him over.”

“Wha – are you _crazy?!_ ” Ed felt the knot in his chest tightening even more, making it even harder to breathe. “His my _professor_ – you can’t just – “

Alphonse gave him his most innocent look. “No he’s not. Not anymore. You graduated today, remember?”

“ _That doesn’t make any difference – “_

“Ed! Congratulations!”

The approach of his university friends made him stop talking immediately. He forced a smile at their greeting. A quick glance to his side showed him that Alphonse used the momentarily distraction to get away. The sneaky bastard.

“Can’t believe you actually graduated before me,” said Russle. He was two years older than Ed, and was still struggling with his thesis.

Ed glanced around the room looking for his brother; he still had to put him in place for inviting _his professor_ to this party. But he was already way across the room, chatting up with Winry. Ed was forced to turn back to his friends, noticing with alarm that more people had taken this as a cue that they could come and congratulate him, too.

He felt he was suffocating.

~*~

He managed to escape the congratulating and hugging (to which more people joined after the first group started) only when the doorbell rang, which, according to Alphonse, meant that the pizza was there. Still starving – and looking for any excuse to get away – Ed was thankful for that. Some of the party guests carried the various pizza boxes, containing five family-size pizzas and what Ed suspected to be chicken wings, and the bag with the sauces and drinks to the small table which could barely hold all the food.

At least by being the person who this party was thrown for he got to be the first to take a slice of pizza. So he took two and stepped away, letting the other people have theirs.

“Someone’s hungry. The ceremony took hours, didn’t it?”

Ed was with his third – and still rather large – bite of pizza stuffed in his mouth. Startled that anyone would come talk to him when there was food, he looked up at the speaker.

What started as a minor embarrassment about being caught with two slices of pizza – one in each hand – and a bite almost too large to fit in his mouth turned into a mortifying feeling of wishing the floor would break and drop him all four floors back down when he realized just _who_ it was that came over to bother him while he was eating. He felt his face going red again as Professor Mustang kept looking at him with a calm smile on his face and a slice of pizza held in his hand, a perfectly decent sized bite showing that the man had already started eating it.

Ed wasn’t sure what to do. He knew it was impolite to speak when his mouth was full, but also – he couldn’t make Professor Mustang wait until he finished chewing. So he settled on something in between, and swallowed the only partially chewed pizza. This was a horrible idea as he found himself almost choking at the too large bite. He turned away to cough, mortified at the idea that _this_ was his first interaction with Mustang outside of school. He was so going to kill Al –

“Edward, are you okay?”

Shit. He now got him worried. Ed gasped for air, trying to breathe like a normal and ending up coughing instead.

“Y-yes,” he tried saying, horrified by how hoarse and choked his voice sounded. He wasn’t sure if it was the attempt to talk, or the sheer horror, but he got into a coughing fit again.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” he could hear Mustang’s worried voice through his vicious coughs. He was also sure that by now all the guests were looking at him didn’t help at all.

Ed waved with his hand, trying to get the notion that there was no need to apologize. It took another moment of coughing before it finally calmed down and he managed to take a few whiffs of air without them being instantly forced out. He knew that his face was very red, and he was still breathing heavily; but he didn’t want to waste more time. He was already embarrassed enough.

“I’m – _shit_ – I’m sorry. Yeah, the ceremony was really long and Al – my brother – didn’t let me stop on the way here to eat.” He finally felt calm enough to look up. He saw that Mustang was looking at him, still smiling politely and traces of concern still adorning his features. _God_ , he was even more attractive this way.

And Ed had to go _and choke on a pizza_ the first time they talk outside of the classroom. He had to change the subject. “What, uh, what are you doing here? Why weren’t you at the ceremony?”

Shit. That came out as an accusation. Just fucking magnificent.

“Well, I wasn’t at the ceremony because I am not a part of the science faculty. If you remember, my department is a branch of social science. So I wasn’t supposed to be there,” he smiled, and Ed felt that he’d hit rock bottom. “And I am here… because I was invited, and I remembered you. And then I remembered the very obvious tension in the room during our private sessions, and how incredibly attractive you are, and, most importantly, that if this is your graduation party then that means that you are no longer a student at the university where I work.”

The words hit him like a 5000 kilogram wrecking ball. Again it was difficult to breathe and he felt his face burning. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. This – this had to be a joke, right?

There was _no way_ – he was going to fucking _murder_ Al –

He glanced sideways, locating Alphonse on the other side of the snack table. He was standing with his little group of friends but his eyes were definitely fixed on Ed. It was incredibly tempting to jump over all the food and punch him in the face, but as much as he wanted to, he doubted creating a scene would be appreciated. He had to do damage control.

He turned his eyes back to Mustang. He tried to ignore the suffocating feeling in his throat. “Listen, I don’t know, uh, what my brother told you, but he’s an idiot and – well, I’m sorry for all your trouble. On his behalf.”

For a moment neither of them said anything; the party around them was still rather loud, with people talking and eating and with the music someone decided to play in the meanwhile.

Eventually Mustang spoke. “Alphonse didn’t tell me anything other than that he throws you a party and inviting me.”

This caught Ed completely by surprise. “You mean that?...”

“That I meant what I said. And that if you’d agree, I’d like to take you out for dinner sometime. Say, next Saturday?”

Ed blinked and stared at Mustang’s face, looking for any sign of insincerity. But there was none. “I…” he looked away. Was he really going to do this? It wasn’t illegal anymore, and he’d spent the whole semester thinking how hot Professor Mustang was. But the age difference was significant, and it was _weird_.

But since when did he care about being weird?

“Alright,” he said, smiling weakly and turning his eyes back to face Mustang. Or – should he call him Roy? “Yeah, I’d like that.”

With the genuine smile that was returned to him he felt the knot in his chest easing, changing into something much lighter, warmer.

“Great. I’ll pick you up here at six.”

Ed nodded. “Sounds good.” He glanced around, feeling happy yet strangely uncomfortable; he saw that Alphonse was still looking at them. He decided to ignore him for now and make him pay later. Or perhaps, thank him.


End file.
